Thank you. Item 2, Ministers' statements. Item 3, Members' statements. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on October 21, 2003, I asked the Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat whether all annual reports required in the staff retention policy had been laid before the Legislative Assembly as required under section 20 of that policy. I had been unable to find them.

Mr. Speaker, I subsequently received a letter from the Minister admitting the information had not been tabled as required by the policy and promising to ensure that it was included in the next public service annual report. The letter noted that the information had been provided to members in a presentation to committee. It went on to say the information provided was not consistent with the requirements set out in the policy. The Minister attached a copy of the report provided to the committee to the letter he sent me.

Since the report had been provided to a committee, I followed our policy and approached the Minister's office for permission to share it with the person who had raised the issue with me. Mr. Speaker, since the staff retention policy required publicly reporting the information to the Assembly, you can imagine my surprise when the Minister's office refused permission to release the document.

We are supposed to have an open and accountable government. We have a policy in place that requires information to be publicly reported. I requested the information publicly in this House, yet I was provided the response by way of private correspondence and then told I could not share it. Mr. Speaker, that's not right.

The Minister and the government must follow a policy and provide information publicly as set out in their own policy, not just in the future, but for all periods in the past that were to be covered by the policy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Item 3, Members' statements. Mr. Braden.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The number of organizations in the NWT that are more than 50 years old is a rather short list, but this weekend one new organization was added to that, Mr. Speaker. The Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 164, held a banquet on Saturday to mark the occasion; the occasion of the naming of the branch, for Right Honourable Vincent Massey, a distinguished Canadian diplomat and Governor General, whose name was taken for that branch on February 27, 1953. The Yellowknife Legion's days really go back a number of years earlier, Mr. Speaker, to 1945 when some 19 returning veterans from the Second World War gathered fellow veterans together and started today's organization.

Mr. Speaker, the 470 members of today's Yellowknife branch joined branches in Hay River and Inuvik as members of the Canadian Legion's Half Century Club. Across Canada there are some 1,800 branches, some 750,000 members, and they have a 78-year history. They started in 1925 to help assure better pensions for veterans and since then, the Royal Canadian Legion has become an institution in towns and cities across Canada.

Mr. Speaker, legions pay their own way. They pay taxes, they have a big payroll, they have extensive youth and member programs and make contributions in the millions of dollars and hundred of thousands of hours of community service. In Yellowknife alone, the branch here anticipates returning some $250,000 to the community. There are six legion branches in the NWT that are valued parts of our heritage, our community and our future. Canada owes much to the men and women who served in the field of battle and in the name of peace, Mr. Speaker. I want to pay tribute to all veterans in the Second World War who were at Saturday evening's event: Dusty Miller of the Royal Canadian Air Force; Jack Adderley of the Canadian Navy; Bishop John Sperry of the British Navy; Ethel Wilson of the Canadian Army and from the Korean War, veteran Jan Stirling also of the Canadian Army. Mr. Speaker, we congratulate the Legion, its members and wish them a great future. Thank you.

---Applause

Item 3, Members' statements. Member for North Slave, Mr. Lafferty.

The honourable Member for North Slave is seeking unanimous consent. Do I hear any nays? You have unanimous consent, Mr. Lafferty. Continue.

Item 3, Members' statements. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support the GNWT's harmonization initiative. Mr. Speaker, I think it's important that we, as legislators, remember that we are here to serve the people, and that we should always endeavor to remember that we are here to serve the people and that we should always endeavour to remember those that are in need the most. The harmonization initiative, Mr. Speaker, was welcomed in Hay River because one of the basic premises of the public housing rent scale was to ensure that the greatest benefit went to those most in need.

Well, Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot of fear mongering going on in the last several months around the harmonization initiative. Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, we are not hearing from the single mothers in public housing who would stand to have their rents decreased by $100 a month on average, if the harmonization initiative was prepared to go ahead. Mr. Speaker, in Hay River, for example, 71 of our current public housing tenants would enjoy a rent decrease; 18 of our public housing tenants would have their rents increased, but only because nine of these people earn an average of $2,300 per month and the other nine earn in excess of $3,300 a month.

Mr. Speaker, it is my feeling that if people are earning that kind of money, they should be paying their fair share in rent. No, Mr. Speaker, it appears that we are hearing most from the small percentage of people whose rents are due to increase as a result of the primary premise behind public housing, and that is rent geared to income. So, Mr. Speaker, in my way of thinking, if this vocal minority is going to have their rents increased, then their rent hasn't properly reflected their income up until now. The harmonization initiative that is proposed, Mr. Speaker, helps those people who need help the most, namely young families with small income.

Mr. Speaker, I have worked very closely with seniors in Hay River and some of them will be affected by the new rent scale. The feeling among our seniors is that they are people who have always paid their own way in life, and like the independence that they have derived from it. So they are prepared to pay some of their income towards housing. I'm not saying, Mr. Speaker, that there are no improvements that could be made to the housing harmonization initiative, such as grandfathering some clients and then putting some clients at full rent. I think there is some improvement that could be made there but I think we've got to start listening to the people that need us the most, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Item 3, Members' statements. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had opportunity to travel home this past weekend and talk to a number of constituents during the trip and a couple on the way returning here to Yellowknife. Mr. Speaker, in the last week, there have been Members who raised issues around education. As last week was Education Week, it was an opportunity to raise issues around that, whether it was students or whether it was quality. Mr. Speaker, one of the things that came out of the attention that was paid to it last week were some issues raised in this House by my colleague, Mr. Bell. One of my constituents pointed out that Mr. Bell raised some very legitimate concerns about what we find with our education system. As I talked to this individual, I found out more information or lack of it. As Mr. Bell pointed out, we can pull out all kinds of stats around people smoking or STD's as we call them around the Northwest Territories, but tell us what quality of education our children are getting and we can get a number of different answers.

For example, Mr. Speaker, I can say that one of my children is in Grade 10 and that can also be interpreted to say they are not only in Grade 10, they could be in year 10. They aren't necessarily achieving at the Grade 10 level but they could be taking some other courses lower than that. Mr. Speaker, I've raised the question on quite a number of occasions as a Member of this or a previous Assembly about a social pass or peer advance. There are a number of different terms and there is some disagreement on how those issues should go.

But, Mr. Speaker, as Members of the Assembly, we make decisions based on information provided and we need to get accurate information to know if, in fact, the system we are operating within is providing accurate details so that as a parent, I can make the right decisions for my child in school. What I am hearing around the table from different people, those involved in education, is that is not always the case because it can be said that your child is attending and achieving at Grade 6 math, Grade 9 social studies and so on, Mr. Speaker. But, when we ask the education system to provide us information on what grade they are on, they have difficulty in providing that. So I will have appropriate questions for the Minister later. Thank you.

---Applause

Item 3, Members' statements. Member for Range Lake. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to report to the House about some comments and observations my constituents are making about the capital expenditure priorities of the government on new recreational facilities. Mr. Speaker, this goes to the point I have been making on numerous occasions in this House already, which is that the capital spending on territorial facilities such as the Young Offender Facility and the Correctional Centre does not make it any less necessary for this government to do its part towards the funding of recreational facilities in Yellowknife.

Mr. Speaker, everyone knows that the capital city is experiencing rapid growth and it seems that our property taxes are on an upwards spiral, but our taxes are not enough to meet the demands being put on our community infrastructure. We're falling behind in land development and underground water and sewer pipe replacement. The one that is really falling victim to this, Mr. Speaker, is our youth and recreational facilities. For the most part of past winter months, this city of 18,000 have had to share one ice pad. A large part of this had to do with the lack of funding which made it necessary to extend the life of the old Gerry Murphy Arena as long as possible until it was shut down before the new one could be built. We are very glad that the second ice pad at the new multiplex is operating now, as it has eased the burden, but the sad fact is that this is far from enough to meet the needs of ice time in the city.

It has been brought to my attention, Mr. Speaker, by my constituent, that the city of Iqaluit, with a population of under 9,000, has two ice pads. Yellowknife, with a population of 18,000, just now has two ice pads even with the new one coming on stream. We are in need of at least three ice pads for the population we serve and this means we have no time to rest with the new pads up and running; we have to work on funding the third ice pad. I understand, Mr. Speaker, that the funding for recreation facilities are done by this government through block funding to the city.

This gives no comfort to my constituents who can see with their eyes, the irony of a young offender facility going up side by side with the recreational facility that has had to go through such a struggle to get its funding. I can appreciate how my constituents ask why we seem to spend more money to house young offenders than helping youth to stay out of trouble and lead a healthy and productive life. I really believe it is high time that this government acknowledged that it is falling behind the needs of this growing city, and that it cannot hide behind block funding when it comes to showing commitment to recreational facilities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Colleagues, I would like to direct your attention to the presence in the visitor's gallery of the Honourable John McCallum, the Minister of National Defence; the Honourable Ethel Blondin-Andrew, Secretary of State for Children and Youth, and Member of Parliament for the Western Arctic; along with Admiral Raymond Zuliani, Chief of Reserve Cadets with the Department of National Defence in Ottawa and also Colonel Norris Pettis, Commander of Canadian Forces, Northern Area. Welcome to the House.

---Applause

Item 3, Members' statements. Member for Hay River South. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Item 3, Members' statements. The Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Nitah.

Item 3, Members' statements. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery.

At this time, I would like to recognize former Languages Commissioner Ms. Betty Harnum and also our Language Commissioner of the Northwest Territories Ms. Fibbie Tatti.

---Applause

Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize today Mary Rose Sundberg from Dettah. She's the Dogrib interpreter today, as well as Mary Rose and Betty Harnum who are instructors with the Dogrib literacy class in Dettah. Some of the students here today are -- I can't see everyone -- Doreen Liske, Edith Wellin, John Crapeau, Therese Sangris, Beatrice Sangris from Dettah and Lucy Goulet from Ndilo. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause